It's a little bit the violin, but lots more who plays it.

I have no idea which clever soul coined the saying that is the title of this post, but it has
been a favourite of mine for many years. Every time I went fishing with my Shimano
fishing-gear and returned without catching even a single fish, I would be reminded of
this saying because I would see other fishers reeling in catch by the minute with just a
home-made fishing rod.

And day-before-yesterday's incident sort of proved the whole theory right. Being X'mas vacation, my sisters had come down with their family and my niece Divya had been after
me to take her fishing. The Shimano was not an option, since the rod had broken some
months ago and I did not get a replacement.

So, I fashioned out a fishing rod/reel using a bamboo rod, a piece of straw (for the float).
I ofcourse have the hook and string stocked at home. And off we go fishing. My plan was
to go to our plot of land near the river, where we had just recently reclaimed some of the
land that we had lost to the river over the years. This strip of reclaimed land was a good
option to fish from. But to our disappointment, the water is covered with hyacinth and
thus not a good place to fish because the hook would get entangled.

We move to the neighbouring plot which belongs to my Mom's cousin. He has built a series
of concrete steps leading down to the water & cleared a small patch of land where one could
sit and fish or read a book, watching the river flow by silently with the occasional fishing
canoe pass by.

We start fishing and Divya is all excited, but while the fishes cleverly eat the bait without
getting caught, she learns an important lesson in fishing - patience. And then I reel in our
first fish - nothing very big, but not that small either.

Divya fishing on the banks of the Achankoil river :


Now she is excited and wants to try her hand at it. I hand over the fishing rod to her and
take over the job of putting bait on the hook and throwing the line for her. In 15 minutes,
she reels in 3 fishes. Her joy knows no bounds - it is her first attempt at fishing & she has
already caught 3 fishes.

We would have loved to spend more time fishing, but it was getting late and we needed
to get back home. Since I have never returned from fishing with any fish, people at home
are not expecting this time to be any different. So they are surprised to see us return
with 4 fishes. The four fishes we caught - all of the same kind, known locally as "Paral".


The bigger of the 4 fishes.

As usual, my wife has the last word as she says tongue-in-cheek, "Given that Divya was

able to catch fishes so easily with a home-made fishing-rod, should you not have jumped

into the river out of shame?" Referring to the fact that I could not manage even a single

fish with the fancy Shimano.

Well, it sure is a little bit the fishing gear, but lots more who wields it. And ofcourse throw

in lots of luck.

What better gift than a nice read ? Especially one that you can't put down.

It was our wedding anniversary last week & my wife had a gift for me -a copy of Chetan
Bhagat's latest novel "2 States". It was a surprise. Not the gift, but the fact that not only
did she tolerate me (and my occasional eccentricities) all these years, but also felt like
getting a gift for me. :-)

This is Chetan's 4th book and the other 3 books are already part of my collection. Apart
from liking the way he writes, I like the way he prices his books. All his books are priced
at Rs.95 (2$) which is not only affordable to most people who form his readership, but by keeping the figure just below 3-digits, it kind of makes you think that it is not too much
money, as opposed to if the price was say Rs.100. You know, like how Bata prices their
footwear - Rs.199 instead of Rs200.

My wife tells me that she read somewhere that the pricing is his wife's idea - as if to rub
in the "behind every successful man, there is a woman" theory. :-) I don't really doubt
that because Chetan's wife is also an IIM product (IIM-A at that) and you don't just get
into an IIM without more-than-average grey matter.

I absolutely loved his first book "5 point someone" which is about his IIT experiences &
which is being made into a Hindi movie "3 Idiots". His second one, "1 night @ the call
centre" was good, but not as much as the first one. The 3rd book was "The 3 mistakes of
my life", which was about the Gujarat riots and in my opinion ranking last in his books.

The latest one "2 States" is actually a piece of fiction which is based on his life. Actually
based on his marriage - a Punjabi guy marrying a Tamil Iyengar girl. Can you imagine a
more explosive combination ? While we can talk all day about unity in diversity and all
that, in reality we are all different people and think of the other one as aliens.

Northies have their own beliefs about Southies, and vice versa. Even among Southies,
people belonging to each of the 4 Southern states have their own 'opinion' about those
from other states. Heck even in a state, people from various regions have their own
prejudices about those from other regions.

An apt example is the South/North divide in Kerala. The Northies (those from Kannur, Kozhikode, etc) have a saying "Thekkane-yum Moorkkane-yum kandaal, thekkane
aadyam kollanam", which translates into "If you come across a South-Keralite and a
Cobra, kill the Southie first". Meaning that a Southie is more harmful than a poisonous
Cobra. Hey, I am from South Kerala, though not sure if I am dangerous than a Cobra.

There is nothing really fancy about how Chetan writes. Actually the writing is simple &
that I guess is what endears him to readers. You feel he is telling a story and you are
listening. And in this book, he has effortlessly covered the general Delhi-Punjabi psyche,
their interests (eating, showing off & splurging) and has also adeptly captured the typical TamBram way of life (valuing education above everything else, equally at home with
technology & horoscopes, the coy-girl-at-home-but-wild-outside syndrome etc).

And if you leave apart his IIT and IIM exposure, most guys would be able to identify with
him on many counts. I for one could relate to so many incidents in just the first half of the
book (I could not finish it) that it felt like he has written my story.

There is the part about how he tries to win over the conservative TamBram parents of
his girlfriend, but does not seem to be succeeding. And finally he gets a chance to bond
with his future FIL, when the latter has to make a very important presentation at office
and seeks his help with PowerPoint. Over a period of few days, they get close enough
for FIL to offer him a drink from the Chivas Regal that a potential suitor (US educated TamBram guy working for Cisco - LOL) for his daughter had presented him.

And FIL proceeds to pour 4 tablespoons of whisky into a glass for himself & asks Chetan
how many spoons he needs. Ofcourse, the Punjabi he is, Chetan pours his drink from the
bottle sans spoon, which amazes FIL who says, "My wife does not let me drink more than
4 spoons a day". And as they work overnight on the presentation, they end up finishing
3/4th of the bottle.

My normal style of reading books is at-one-go - I don't need food or sleep or anything if
I have a good book in hand. But with work, time for my son/wife and other chores, this
style does not work anymore. So, I tried to read this book in bits - while having a smoke
in the yard, in the loo etc. But I still could manage to complete only 1/2 the book over the
last weekend.

I had to return to Chennai & could have used the time on the train to finish it. But I saw
that my wife was also following the book when she got some spare time & thinking that
she would want it, I left it at Kerala. I can't wait to get back home this Saturday to read
the rest of this absolutely un-putdownable book.

If you like books (light fiction) and have not read Chetan Bhagat yet, I would highly
recommend "2 States"and after that I am sure you will find yourself buying his other
books.

P.S. : Inspite of being a fan of Chetan's writing and reading his books, I did not know (till
I read about it on a website yesterday) that there was a common thing about the titles
of all his books - they all have a number in them - 5, 1, 3 & 2.